Chapter 6

The Seven Years War in America

Colonial leaders met to unite against France and Indians
The Albany Conference of 1754
Plan of Union
Indian affairs, western settlement be under authority of a grand council
The Colonial and Indian Interests
Ohio valley in French hands, British want valley for settlement=conflict
Indians tried to play French and Brits off
Frontier Warfare
George Washington forced to surrender his force to the French while trying to
kick them out of the Ohio Valley=retaliation
Hard to unite the colonies to fight together=ineffective resistance
The Conquest of Canada
Pitt reversed the war by promising Indians to negotiate=co-operation and sending
in British troops
England would pay for the war
Plains of Abraham, Montcalm vs. Wolfe=Quebec falls, Montreal follows
Treaty of Paris=Brits win
Brits get Florida and New France, French get Martinique and Guadeloupe and Spain
get New Orleans from France
Indians and Europeans Struggle over the West
Europeans bought favor from Indian chiefs, but Brits stopped that in Ohio
valley=anger
Neolim and Pontiac attack Brits to regain land
Conflict ends in stalemate=Appalachians become border for Indians
However without French to balance of the status quo Indians grow weaker and lose
more land
The Imperial Crisis of North America
After Seven Years war Britain begins to reorganization
The Emergence of American Nationalism
Culture differences, British officers beat their soldiers=discipline
Colonial soldiers were lax
Mutual distrust led to American unity
Fighting in the Seven Years war allowed colonials to associate with each
other=unity
Improved infrastructure=better communications
Newspapers began circulating
Peter Zenger tried for libel against the state=freedom of speech
Politics, Republicanism, and the Press
Influenced by Locke and others
Get rid of aristocracy
Wanted more power for assembly vs. strong state with king to keep masses in line
The Sugar Act
Only affected merchants
Seven Years war left Britain in debt, attempts to tax people at home were met
with protests=tax the colonists!
Sugar Acts=tax on sugar
Bostonians boycotted British products
Offenders were tried at the Vice Admiralty Court in Halifax which was hated
because mad no presumption of innocence and had no jury trial
The Stamp Act
Affected everyone unlike the sugar act

Mad no only cause of tax but because they had no say in the decision
Rich got richer and poor got poorer= tax hit the poor harder=mob unrest
Stamp Act Congress, passed a set of resolutions denying Parliaments right to tax
colonists without representation
Repeal of the Stamp Act
Hurt by the colonial boycott, British merchants persuade Parliament to repeal
the act
Parliament reserves the right to make all decisions in colonies=Declaratory Act
Save Your Money and Save Your Country
Stamp Act mostly affected people in the countryside but acts to come resulted
everyone
The Townshend Revenue Acts
Import duties on lead, glass, paint, paper, and tea
Again argued that Parliament had no right to tax
Didn't want salaries of royal colonial officials to be paid by Britain otherwise
they would be dependent on Britain, not the colonial government
New York resisted and had its assembly suspended=anger as that was
unconstitutional
Nonimportation" An Early Political Boycott
Boycott in many American cities
Split opinion, boycott hurt merchants but helped craftsmen=use of force to
subdue merchants
Argued that no importation stopped material decadence (like
Protestantism)=appealed to the countryside
The Massachusetts Circular Letter
Written to try to get the colonies to come up with a united response to the
Townshend Act=Britain dissolves all colonial assemblies
The dissolution of the assemblies sparked new protests
British troops go into Boston
The Politics of Revolt and the Boston Massacre
Small riots leading to the Boston Massacre
However Townshend Act also repealed due to boycott
The Resistance to Rebellion
Years before the Tea Act were laid out the groundwork for rebellion
Intercolonial Cooperation
All royal salaries were dependent of the state legislature
Intercolonial committee to gather intelligence on Brits
Conspiracy to undermine freedom in the colonies
The Boston Tea Party
East India Company had to much tea=low prices
Brits tax cheap tea, price is still cheaper that normal
Americans still revolt
When the first tea ship arrives in Boston, the people vow to not allow it to be
unloaded in contradiction to Hutchison=Boston Tea Party
The Intolerable Acts
Meetings were allowed only once a year and the agenda was set by Brits
Boston Port Bill=no commerce in harbor until Boston Tea Party was paid for
Quartering Act=Quartering for British troops
Quebec Act=Ohio valley was given to Quebec which had no elected
assembly=American suspicion that they were going to have their assemblies taken
away
Also favored Catholics
The First Continental Congress

Wished to avoid war

Imposed sanctions on Brits until Intolerable acts were repealed
Unity
Lexington and Concord
Brits go after an ammo depot and but start fighting
Hopes start to dim for negotiations
The Second Continental Congress
Georgia, dependent on Britain did not attend first congress but eventually
attended second one
Canadians refuse to join so Americans take Montreal but fail to take Quebec
George Washington attends in uniform-get command of the army
Try one last time to get King George to negotiate
Fighting in the North
Battle of Bunker Hill
at Bunker Hill)
Cannon bombard Boston
Brits are driven from

and the South

lead King George to refuse to negotiate (large casualties
from forcing Brits to evacuate
the south

No Turning Back
Second Continental Congress was now government
Negotiated aid from Spain and France
Thomas Paine-Common Sense-attacked aristocracy and British traditions
The Declaration of Independence
Jefferson write it
Slavery allowed
New York boycotts